


cast a net to the stars

by lincesque



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-29
Updated: 2016-12-29
Packaged: 2018-09-13 04:13:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9106204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lincesque/pseuds/lincesque
Summary: “It’s been a while since we’ve done something as a group,” Jyn announces at lunch, around a mouthful of whatever dubious type of meatloaf that the cafeteria had chosen to serve today. The label had said it was chicken, but both of them had their doubts.Bodhi makes a noise that might mean interest if he wasn’t nose deep in his mechanical engineering textbook, almost four hundred pages through already and it’s barely even week three of the semester.the modern au where everyone's happy and alive and bodhi has a crush basically the size of russia on cassian. it's all okay though, cos wingman jyn's totally got his back.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [raumschiffe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/raumschiffe/gifts).



> totally based off [this post](http://imwechirrut.tumblr.com/post/155036921923/otpmusings-halleydoedog-take-me-laser-tagging) and egged on by [stef](http://raumschiffe.tumblr.com/) / [raumschiffe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/raumschiffe/pseuds/raumschiffe) who is the WORST enabler in history.
> 
> i wanted to start my foray into rogue one and cassian/bodhi with something _serious_ like canon divergence soulmate au (because i am trash okay) but instead i wrote 3k of um. whatever this is lmao. blame stef in all her glory (but no, go heap some love on her because she's the best ♥ )
> 
> title from patent pending's - [brighter](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZ_107oPLtg), one of the songs i put on the [mini mix](http://tumbloncat.tumblr.com/post/155074394895/worlds-apart-yet-not-that-different-a-mini-mix) i made for them last night :D /shameless self promotion ha
> 
> i hope y'all enjoy ╰(◕ᗜ◕)╯

(start)

 

*

 

“It’s been a while since we’ve done something as a group,” Jyn announces at lunch, around a mouthful of whatever dubious type of meatloaf that the cafeteria had chosen to serve today. The label had said it was chicken, but both of them had their doubts.

Bodhi makes a noise that might mean interest if he wasn’t nose deep in his mechanical engineering textbook, almost four hundred pages through already and it’s barely even week three of the semester.

“Hey, you listening, Bodhi?” Jyn asks, leaning over with one elbow balanced against the table. Her other hand taps at Bodhi’s textbook and there’s a tumble of breadcrumbs that scatter over the highlighted and sticky-noted pages. “Oops.”

Bodhi looks up, finally, and wrinkles his nose, brushing away the mess with a sleeve. She looks about as apologetic as he expected, which was not at all. He sighs, knowing that she isn’t going to leave him alone until she got the answer she wanted from him, whether he liked it or not.

He marks the page he’s on and shuts the book entirely, stowing it away in his bag, amongst the other three textbooks already in there. His lunch is cold by now, the apparent roast beef and gravy congealed into an unappetising soggy mess in his roll. Bodhi takes a bite anyway, not too fussed about what went into his mouth as long as it was vaguely edible and wasn’t likely to poison him.

“Okay, then,” he says, pointedly wiping at his mouth with a napkin after he’s finished gulping down the first few mouthfuls, chewing with his mouth closed. He’s still futilely trying to influence Jyn’s atrocious table manners by example, it hasn’t worked so far but he remains somewhat hopeful. ”What do you wanna do?”

Jyn grins at him, tucking a strand of dark hair behind her ears, before going back to lean her chin against her palms, elbows braced against the table. “I miss the old crew, you know. Chirrut and Baze. K. _Cassian_.” She raises her eyebrows and waggles them suggestively at the last name and Bodhi can’t help it, he blushes like a pre-teen girl and barely manages to shove down the urge to cover his burning face with his hands.

“Jyn, no -” he mumbles, and he’s starting to get a very bad feeling about whatever dastardly plot that Jyn was brewing, probably the latest in a long line of very enthusiastic yet ultimately useless attempts to set Cassian and Bodhi up. He regrets that one night of drinking with her to celebrate them both getting into an Ivy League school, which had resulted in Bodhi getting drunk after the second round of shots and sobbing into Jyn’s shoulder about Cassian Andor’s perfection and Bodhi’s miserable three year crush on him.

Jyn had patted him gently on the shoulder that night, telling him that she would do all in her power to help him. Drunk Bodhi had thought that it was the kindest thing that anyone’s ever offered to do for him and had proceeded to bawl all over her other shoulder. Sober Bodhi, however, was left cursing both Jyn Erso’s very existence and drunk Bodhi’s inability to keep his mouth shut after the second time that he had been _‘accidentally’_ locked into the closet with Cassian at a party.

After managing to wrangle a promise out of Jyn to never speak to Cassian about what drunk Bodhi had said using a combination of emotional blackmail and sheer, shameless begging, sober Bodhi remained to forever stay sober and to live out the remainder of his life with quiet dignity even as Jyn continued to heckle him, good naturedly of course, at every single opportunity.

“Jyn, yes.” She flicks a ball of scrunched up paper napkin, bouncing it off his forehead. “C’mon, Bodhi. I know you miss ‘em too.” Her wide eyed look of innocence could’ve fooled anyone but Bodhi, who knows her too damned well. Sure enough, her grin slips through soon after. “Especially _oh-my-gosh-he’s-so-handsome_ -Cassian.”

Bodhi’s forehead hits the table with a solid _thunk_. “You are the worst friend a person can have. I hate you so much.”

“Nah, you love me,” she tells him cheerfully. “And since you’re so busy and I’m such a good friend, I’ll organise everything and once everything’s finalised, I’ll send you the details.”

Bodhi doesn’t like it, not a single bit but there’s nothing more he can do. Jyn on a mission was an unstoppable Jyn, he knows this from first hand experience.

She must see something in his expression though and her own features soften. Her fingers grips his in a tight squeeze. “Hey, Bodhi. It’ll be okay, I promise. You’re my best friend first and foremost and I just want the best for you. Nothing’s gonna happen that you don’t want, alright?”

Bodhi sighs, and nods. Jyn’s just looking out for him, he knows, in her own strange way. He’s mostly sure that he can walk out of this one intact just like the previous handful of times when she had _‘arranged’_ something. And, if he’s not lying to himself, it would be good to see everyone again. It’s been months since he and Jyn had moved away from home to go to college and chances to catch up with the old crew have been sparse - everyone has their own lives after all.

Chirrut and Baze are working day and night running a successful restaurant downtown, K’s busy working on the final parts of his thesis for his Ph.D and Cassian - Well. Cassian’s still the same - busy with the family business. Bodhi knows that his father’s retiring this year, a piece of information gleaned from one of their short skype conversations, usually initiated by Bodhi late at night when he’s particularly lonely and has spent too long staring at the green online tag of Cassian’s skype. Cassian always responds though, and the couple of times when they’ve been on voice chat, he seems happy, upbeat and glad to hear from Bodhi. He’s not sure what this means, when he sits listening to Cassian’s laugh at two am, familiar even through his shitty pair of second hand headphones.

“Hey, I miss you, man,” Cassian had said once, maybe a couple of months ago. They had just missed each other by a few days when Bodhi had gone back home to visit his mama for mid-year break. Cassian had been interstate for some reason or another and by the time he had returned, Bodhi was already back on campus.

Bodhi had smiled then, even though he didn’t have a webcam and Cassian couldn’t see it at all. “Yeah,” he had replied eventually, once he was sure he wasn’t going to blurt out anything too embarrassing. “I miss you too.”

 

*

 

It’s Friday night, sure, which means no class tomorrow at least. Bodhi’s nursing a glass of coke as he leans back in his seat a touch sullenly, thinking of all the prep work he could be doing for next week’s lecturers instead of sitting here, alone. He traces a line of precipitation down the side of the glass with a finger and sighs.

It’s well after eight-thirty when Jyn finally shows up, K in tow. “Sorry, sorry!”

She’s breathless, hair tied back today in a messy ponytail. With her leather jacket and ripped jeans, she looks a bit more like the rebellious teen that Bodhi had first befriended way back in high school than the much more put together college version with her preppy shirts and knee length skirts - all provided by her doting father.

“You said eight, on the dot,” Bodhi gripes at her, without much real heat. Jyn’s never been good at keeping the time, he knows this and yet he still can’t break the habit of showing up on time when he has to meet her. He smiles up at K, still as tall and lanky as ever, serious grey eyes half hidden behind his thick rimmed glasses. “Hey, K.”

“Greetings, Bodhi.”

K had been an international student once, who transferred into their high school towards their final year, from some country in Europe that taught very formal English as a second language. Bodhi’s convinced that K’s actually American born and bred, adopting the snobby accent and stilted vocabulary merely to mess with people, in combination with his deadpan sense of humour and not completely hidden sarcastic streak. He’s glad that they’ve moved past the last names though.

K turns to Jyn, tilting his head to one side. “Jyn. In the message you sent to Chirrut, Baze and myself, you said that the meeting time was meant to be eight-thirty. Did you mistype?”

Bodhi rolls his eyes even as Jyn laughs, a little too loudly for it to be completely natural. “Probably, my bad.”

There’s the familiar tap of a cane against the ground and even more familiar voices.

“This seems like a very fun place to gather.” Chirrut is saying, smiling as always, cane tapping on the ground before him. Baze holds on gently to his elbow even though they all know Chirrut is more than capable of guiding himself around.

“Very loud, very dangerous,” Baze mutters, glaring a couple of teenagers into submission and out of Chirrut’s path. They shuffle off to one side meekly, ducking their heads from Baze’s eyes.

“Don’t scare the children too much,” Chirrut tells him, serenely, before he turns to face the trio unerringly to his right. “He didn’t mean anything by it. He’s a big teddy bear really.” The three kids look skeptically at each other, glancing at Baze’s still glowering face and Chirrut’s friendly smile, before clearing out entirely.

“Oh dear,” Chirrut tuts, a tad reproachfully. “I think you may have scarred them a little, Baze.”

Baze sniffs disdainfully, even as he pulls out a chair for Chirrut at the table and guides him gently into it, big hands curled around his companion’s much thinner shoulders. “Serves them right.”

“Hello, it’s been a while.” Chirrut beams at them all once he’s seated, cane tucked away safely between his knees.

Before any of them already sitting at the table can reply, someone flops into the seat next to Bodhi’s. He glances over to find Cassian smiling at him. “It really has.”

Cassian’s let his hair grow out a little since the last time they saw each other, some part of Bodhi’s consciousness that’s still functioning notes. The rest of his mind is too busy gibbering about how close Cassian is _right now_. The little two person booth is clearly not built for two grown men and subsequently their thighs are basically pressed together beneath the small table and Cassian’s slid his left arm across the back of the booth. If Bodhi lets himself lean back, Cassian’s arm would almost be around his shoulders. He avoids all forms of eye contact with Jyn.

There’s a hint of sly amusement in her tone still though, when she claps her hands together and announces, “Welcome to the first bi-monthly games tournament for the Rogues. Tonight, we’re gonna be strapping ourselves in for some seriously intense laser tag.”

 

*

 

Bodhi would scream if he thought he could get away with it without appearing like a giant loser in front of Cassian. Across from him, Baze is helping Chirrut strap into the heavy vest, his own already on and clipped shut. Chirrut’s holding the gun with one hand, running the fingers of the other across every nook and cranny of the plastic. K is in another corner, arguing with Jyn about their apparent cohort name.

K’s holding still while Jyn clips him firmly into the vest. “I am merely saying, we could change it to something more appealing to the masses. The Magnificent Six perhaps. Who goes around calling themselves ‘ _the Rogues_ ’ anyway? We sound like a bad super villain team up.”

She shoves the gun into his hands and steps back, obviously done. “Appealing to the masses,” she snorts, leaning her shoulder against a wall. “We’re all outliers,” she says. “We go against the trend, we’re rogues! Not part of your gun-ho western fetish.”

K splutters for a moment. “Excuse me -”

Jyn spins around to face Bodhi. “C’mon, back me up here, Bodhi,” she pleads, but she’s grinning. She’s always enjoyed poking at K’s buttons, even as K, as much as he didn’t like to admit it, also enjoyed their snarky banter.

Bodhi opens his mouth just as Cassian leans over, brushing a hand over Bodhi’s shoulder and reaching over to straighten a stray strap that had gotten tangled when Bodhi had put on his vest, fingers smoothing over the thin tee-shirt he was wearing. Bodhi closes his mouth with a muted click and is suddenly glad for the darker lighting in the prep room. It hides most of his furiously burning face even as he feels the heat spreading, slowly edging down his neck and up across the top of his ears.

“I think it’s a good name,” Cassian says, slinging an arm around Bodhi’s shoulders like he wont to do. He smiles down at Bodhi. “Don’t you think, Bodhi?” The accent that Cassian’s never bothered to shake curls over the syllables of his name fondly.

“Um. Yeah,” Bodhi says, very eloquently. Cassian beams at him anyway.

“I call dibs on Bodhi,” Cassian adds, tightening his hold around Bodhi’s shoulders, glancing around as if expecting someone to challenge him. Chirrut is leaning against Baze, who raises his eyebrows. They’ve never once managed to split the two apart, for any sort of team activity. Even Jyn’s given up on trying.

Speaking of which, Jyn suddenly pops up next to them, shaking a finger at him. “Nuh uh. You’re way too sneaky, and despite all of this,” she gestures to Bodhi’s everything, “he’s sneaky as well. Can’t have both of you on the same team, it wouldn’t be fair. You’re with K, Cassian. I’ve got Bodhi.”

Cassian lets him go after another long moment, shrugging lightly at him as if saying ‘what can you do’. He turns to K instead. “I guess it’s just you and me. Partner.”

K sighs and goes back to poking at his gun.

Bodhi drags Jyn away, to the only other free corner and possibly out of earshot of everyone else in the small room. “What are you doing,” he hisses at her, keeping his voice as low as possible. “I thought your plan was -” He glances back to where Cassian stands, hands tucked in his vest, chatting idly with K.

“To hook you guys up?” Jyn smirks at him and pats him on the shoulder. “It’s okay, Bodhi. That’s still my end game - I’ve got a _plan_.”

“Ugh,” he mumbles as the attendant comes in and starts her cheerful prep talk about safety and rules for the game. “That’s what I’m afraid of.”

 

*

 

Despite what Jyn had implied earlier, Bodhi finds out within the first five minutes that he’s _terrible_ at laser tag. Like, legit possibly as bad as you could get without being seriously incompetent - he’s tripped over at least three of the props lining the corners already and somehow managed to walk into a fake door. He calculates that he’s probably already spent more time ‘dead’ than ‘alive’ or whatever term they used in this farce of a game.

It also doesn’t help that his tee-shirt is white and the lighting inside the laser tag room makes him a walking beacon. He’s taken to hiding in a very secluded corner, standing with his back pressed firmly against the wall. As long as no one can see him, they can’t take any shots at him, he reasons.

He feels a vague sense of guilt that Jyn is now basically left to fend for herself alone against four of the most competitive people he knows. Then he remembers _why_ he’s in this doomed situation in the first place and his guilt basically evaporates.

“So this is where you’re hiding,” someone says from somewhere _right next to him_.

Bodhi very manfully doesn’t screech out loud, just raises his gun up in that direction and instinctively pulls the trigger. The laser fires mechanically, and three loud _pew pew pew_ noises later, Bodhi’s left to stare horrified at Cassian, who blinks at him, bemused, vest dark.

“Oh my god.” Bodhi drops his gun, eyes wide and expression mortified. He bites at his lower lip. “I’m so sorry? You startled me and -”

Cassian saunters over. "You gonna make it up to me then?" His smile is toothy, a little predatory, and he loops around the fake wall to stand very close, intent, one hand coming up to brace against the wall that Bodhi's backed up against. 

"Um," Bodhi squeaks and he has to remind himself to breathe, feeling his heartbeat rabbiting against his chest with Cassian so damned _close_. "Anything you want."

"Anything?" Cassian leans down, and there's barely any space between them now - chests pressed together, hips flush and the fingers of his other hand stroke across the bare expanse of Bodhi's throat, making him shiver before he lifts Bodhi’s chin gently. 

“Tell me no, Bodhi,” Cassian murmurs, and god he’s so close that Bodhi feels the brush of his breath against his lips. If he leans up, even a centimeter and they’d be _kissing_ and there is literally nothing that he wants more than that right now. 

“Please,” Bodhi says, voice hoarse, proud that at least his voice hadn’t cracked or even worse, squeaked embarrassingly. His tongue darts out to lick at his dry lips and he notices with a thrill, that Cassian’s staring at his lips, an almost hungry look to his eyes. And Bodhi, as innocent as he is, isn’t above using any advantages he has. “Please,” he says again, “Kiss me, Cassian.”

With a muttered oath, Cassian does just that, lowering his mouth to Bodhi’s with an almost savage intensity. His lips are slightly chapped, but warm and after the first moment, he gentles the kiss, turning it sweet, brushing their lips together in a series of soft touches before he deepens it - nipping at his lips and licking into Bodhi’s mouth. And Bodhi, he basically melts, suddenly glad of the wall behind him, which is possibly the only reason he's still upright and not a heap on the floor right now.

When Cassian draws away, just enough to run his thumb over Bodhi’s lower lip possessively, Bodhi knows that he probably looks more than a little wrecked what with the pleased smirk that Cassian gives him.

“Can we do that again?” Bodhi says and flushes, immediately cursing his obviously broken mind to mouth filter, because while Cassian’s always had this affect on him, it’s never been as bad as it was right now.

Cassian’s still standing too close, foreheads touching and breathing each other's air, and a little part of Bodhi - alright, a large part of Bodhi, wants to pull him back, for another kiss, or maybe another ten kisses. His smirk grows, the tilt of his lips is mesmerising and Bodhi’s leaning forward, wanting to taste that expression and -

_Pew pew pew._

He freezes, then stares down, disbelievingly, at his vest which has flickered to black.

“You gotta earn it, Bodhi,” Cassian tells him almost cheerfully, holstering his gun - vest glowing a garish red again, casting most of his features into shadow, all except for the curve of his lips. “Don’t make it too easy for me.”

Bodhi gapes at him, because what in the flying hell -

Cassian pushes away, but not without a last lingering press of his lips against Bodhi’s cheek, ghosting across his ear, along the edge of his jaw. “All’s fair in love and war, sweetheart,” he murmurs.

He leaves, _whistling_ , that jerk, sauntering away as casual as you please, glancing back with a playful wink before he vanishes into the darkness of the game room.

Bodhi scrabbles for his gun, waits the fifteen seconds for his vest to whirl back into life, blue LEDs casting his surroundings with an eerie sort of light. He starts determinedly in the direction that Cassian had gone.

“Oh, you’re so on,” he says, unable to help the smile that tugs at his lips. He squares his shoulders, stepping into the middle of the fray, and raises his gun to shoot.

 

*

 

(end)

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!! 
> 
> find me on [tumblr](http://tumbloncat.tumblr.com/), i'm always up for some screeching <3


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